Govt to order ban on stock options and bonuses

Claude Guéant, general secretary to Nicolas Sarkozy, said on France 24 on Thursday that the government would order a ban on stock options and bonuses next week for top executives from bailed out French companies.

The general secretary to the French presidency, Claude Gueant, announced on FRANCE 24 on Thursday that the French government would issue a decree banning stock options and bonuses for executives heading companies that have been bailed out by public money.

“The decree will be issued next week, setting out conditions that will make handing out stock options or bonuses to companies that have benefited from state help illegal.”

Nicolas Sarkozy’s right-hand man also announced that the French business confederation MEDEF would from June be responsible for putting forward propositions on “sharing out value between executives, shareholders and employees”. If there are no “positive” propositions, public authorities “will take responsibility” and propose a text to the French parliament, he said.

Claude Gueant dismissed the possibility of taxing executives, as proposed by the US Congress, saying “the systems are not comparable”.

On March 19, the US House of Representatives adopted a bill that would enable a 90 % bonus tax to be levied on employees of companies that have received more than $5 billion from the state and whose earnings top 250,000 US dollars.